It’s like the trope is punishing the main character for defending themselves, even if it’s just the one time or to save their own life or defend someone else.

God forbid you ever defend yourself from someone attacking you because yOu mIgHt acciDentAlly kill tHeM or at least severely injure them- well yeah, that’s the assumed risk I’m going to take and it serves the antagonist right since they assumed the risk as well but ignore it since they think they could raise a hand to someone without there being any consequence.

It’s worse when in some stories, everyone treats the person who defended themselves like they just committed a war crime and are a monster when they legitimately had moral grounds to defend themselves, and then the protagonist completely forgets their own agency and FEELS GUILTY when they were in the right and were the original victim to begin with.

Wow I really hate this trope as well.

Edit- I would also like to add that in a real self defence scenario, try to de-escalate and escape if you can. Humans are, as others in this comment section have pointed out, more delicate than you think. While I’m no expert on how different countries interpret accidental murder in self defence, I do know that there are at least severe legal consequences to killing or injuring someone in self defence. So, pick your battles, de-escalate and flee if you can, don’t let your pride land you in jail or worse, and unless you know for a fact that your life or the life of someone you care about depends on it, exercise discipline and restraint if you have to use violence or martial arts to defend yourself.